Mad, Vermont, US

To Waitsfield (Middle)

Gauge Information

River Description

Posted by Jeff on 3/30/03 on the MVP message board.
There is a wicked rapid right under the bridge entering Warren from the Sugarbush side, but we opted to skip that until we saw someone else run it. Most of the float to the landing in Waitsfield is a nice class one- two run with several fun surf waves and two drops we elected to scout. the first was about a 3 - 4 foot drop that all ran nicely. the next class three-four rapid was at Butternut Hill Road. The approach rapid proved a bit trickier than the maelstrom that we thought would be the real hazard. The rapid had just claimed one Mad River canoe a few minutes before we arrived, no human injuries but the ash gunnel was broken and the ABS bow severely cracked. The rapid was run and my roll worked as it was supposed to when the exit wave decided to taste me a little more. in all we covered 4 to 5 miles of a seldom run piece of water.

Vermont Paddlers Club has a website and trips list posted if you happen to be going in that direction.
Lat/longitude coordinates are very approximate, from the description above and online maps.